Company behind out-of-control ski lift is the world’s largest lift manufacturer

Dramatic video from a ski resort in the former Soviet republic of Georgia shows skiers being flung off a chair lift.

In what might be a skier’s worst nightmare, the chair lift stopped functioning Friday and then began moving backwards at a high rate of speed.

As chairs returned to what would have been the loading point they whipped around in a 180 degree turn so violently it flung skiers off into the snow. Others were slammed into a growing pile of chairs.

Skiers, alerted to the impending disaster, can be seeing desperately trying to raise the safety bar on the chairs and jumping to safety. Not all were able to do so.

Officials at the Gudari resort in the Caucasus Mountains, told CNN that 10 people were injured.

According to news reports, the lift was made by Doppelmayr, the world’s largest lift manufacturer. The Austrian company made most of the lifts at Washington ski areas and the scenic gondola ride in Spokane’s Riverfront Park.

At Crystal Mountain, Doppelmayr made the ski resort’s Northway Lift. The $2.5 million, mile-long chair lift was installed in 2007.

Doppelmayr also manufactured the resort’s $5.5 million gondola, launched in 2011.

Crystal spokeswoman Tiana Anderson said the lift that malfunctioned in Georgia has fixed chairs. The chairs on Crystal’s lifts detach for loading.

Scott Bowen, the mountain operations manager, said he could never imagine anything like the Georgia accident happening at Crystal.

Bowen said there are a series of brakes on lifts. They would all have to fail for an accident like that to happen.

“We’re constantly testing our brakes every two weeks to prevent something like that from happening,” said Anderson, who says maintenance staff checks equipment daily.

Washington ski areas undergo inspections before and midway through each season. Most state’s don’t have governmental oversight of lifts, but in Washington the state Parks and Recreation department conducts inspections. Additionally, Anderson said, Crystal’s insurance company inspects the lifts at least once per year.

A spokesman for Doppelmayr told The Telegraph it does not yet know what caused the accident in Georgia.

Other resorts in the region with Doppelmayr equipment include White Pass. Its Chair 1 dates to 1962, according to liftblog.com. It also has two Doppelmayr four-person lifts.

Stevens Pass and The Summit at Snoqualmie also have Doppelmayr lifts. Boyne Resorts, the owners of The Summit, just announced their intention to install North America’s first eight-person lift at its Montana resort. It will be manufactured by Doppelmayr.

This story was originally published March 16, 2018 at 5:57 PM with the headline "Company behind out-of-control ski lift is the world’s largest lift manufacturer."